Visiting the excavations of the Hellenistic - Roman city of Ephesus between Izmir and Kusadasi, which we visited several times during our travels, is always a special experience.

The upper entrance on the road to the Marienhaus is the best place to start the circular route. There you will notice the very well restored Odeon. It has 1400 seats and looks like a theatre, which is why it is often called the small theatre.

Curetan Street - the road to the Marienhaus

An Odeon was a covered theatre building for mostly musical events, a kind of concert hall. An inscription found in the Odeon of Ephesus shows that it was donated as the council hall of Ephesus.

On the Curetes Street you walk past numerous monuments down to the Celsus Library. The name of this street is reminiscent of the Curetes, a higher priestly community of ancient Ephesus, about whose cults numerous inscriptions have been found.

The Curetes Street was the main street of the ancient city. To the left and right of the street there were shops and taverns behind columned entrances. Behind these, staircases led to the hillside houses. Statues of famous people stood along the street. Magnificent fountains and the Temple of Hadrian completed the picture of this magnificent street.

The Curetes Street ends at the rebuilt facade of the Celsus Library. Behind the facade of the Celsus Library, display boards - also in German - explain the history of the library and the ancient building techniques. From the Celsus Library to the large theatre, you walk along the lower market square on the Marble Street, a former street with columned arcades.

Large theatre in ancient Ephesus

The highlight of a visit to the ancient city is a visit to the large theatre. From the upper rows of seats, you have a magnificent view over the marble-paved harbour street, the Arcadian, to the former harbour of Ephesus. The theatre has been renovated so that concerts can be held in the summer months. When the theatre is filled to the last seat for these performances, thoughts go back to the time of the Apostle Paul, when the atmosphere in the stands was not so peaceful. Today, about a twentieth of the area of ​​the ancient city has been uncovered. If you climb up to the upper rows of the theatre and take a look over the current excavation site, you get an impression of the enormous extent of the ancient city of Ephesus.

To the left of the road leading from Selçuk to the House of Mary, you come across the tomb of Luke at the upper entrance. There you will find the ruins of a basilica from the 4th century, which was built on an ancient round building. Because the head of a bull, a symbol of the Evangelist Luke, was depicted on one of the pillars, the building was called the tomb of Luke.

The pious youths in the Cave of the Seven Sleepers

The Cave of the Seven Sleepers lies between ancient Ephesus and the modern city of Selçuk. A legend tells of seven pious youths from Ephesus. They were walled up in the cave during the time of persecution by Emperor Decius (249 - 251). They fell into a deep sleep and only woke up again when Christianity was already the state religion under Emperor Theodosian II (408 - 450).

They were freed by an earthquake and after their death, by order of the emperor, were reburied in the cave of their long sleep. A church was built over the cave. The resting place of the Seven Sleepers became a destination for pilgrims.

Since the 18th sura of the Koran contains a similar report, many Muslims also worship this place. When the apostle Paul left Ephesus, he asked Timothy to stay in the city (1 Tim 1:3). Tradition has it that Timothy was the first bishop of the city. He is said to have been stoned in 96 AD after he dared to denounce the unbridled debauchery at festivals. His tomb was venerated in Ephesus on the Bülbül Dagi, the Nightingale Mountain. Under Constantine the Great, parts of his bones were transferred to Constantinople in 356. So that the miraculous effects that are said to have emanated from Timothy's tomb could continue in Ephesus, some bones were left in his tomb in Ephesus. This is what apocryphal writings say about Timothy, Paul's most faithful disciple.

Meryem Ana and the Bath of Varius

Ephesus is the most spectacular ancient city in western Anatolia. Two large entrances allow many visitors to enter the excavation sites at the same time, one of the entrances is almost directly on the highway from Selcuk to Pamacak, the other upper entrance is called Meryem Ana (Mother Mary) entrance. When you enter the site from the upper entrance, you will first see the eastern gymnasium, the bath, the fighting arena (modern wrestling and physical training area), the tomb of St. Luke, one of the fountains and the Odeon as the first sights before your eyes.

Then you come to the Bath of Varius, two temples in a rectangle with columns on three sides, the sacred path that is linked to the Curetes path, an imposing fountain complex, the monument of Memmius, the boulevard that connects the monument and the Celsus library, the fountain complex of Trajan on the boulevard, the fountain of Hadrian with the bath of Scholastica to the right behind it with ancient houses opposite that can be visited for an extra fee.

At the intersection of the Curetes and the sacred road is the House of Love, the library of Celsus.

You can find a lot of further information about Ephesus on the official website of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, which is responsible for current excavations in Ephesus.

The new head of Ephesus - Sabine Ladstätter finally confirmed as excavation director

The past two and a half years have not always been easy for Sabine Ladstätter: The renowned archaeologist was actually supposed to be the excavation director in Ephesus since then. An appointment committee had suggested her as the ideal successor to Friedrich Krinzinger, the long-time head of this important research work. However, an intrigue against her initiated by Austrian colleagues who were not quite as high up in the rankings prevented the appointment. The rumour that Ladstätter might surround himself with people who have an anti-Turkish attitude was passed on to the Turkish authorities, who had to approve the appointment. The signature was promptly refused. "An absurd accusation because it does not fit with my personal attitude at all," says Ladstätter today, who can rightly be described as Turkophile.

The expert in ancient economics and ceramics was then at least accepted as deputy in Ephesus: an "elegant solution," as the then Minister of Science Johannes Hahn called it. It was clear that they would try again to get the signature of the Turkish authorities. Ladstätter says today that she used the time to prove herself. From a scientific point of view, this was probably no longer necessary: ​​as the head of the excavations at Hanghaus 2, she was able to prove that this building was destroyed in the earthquake of 262 AD, and not, as assumed, 350 years later.

Many scientists can no longer stand hearing the image of the "glass ceiling" that they are hitting. Ladstätter, born in Carinthia in 1968, broke through it for the first time in October 2009: at that time, she became the first woman in the 109-year history of the Austrian Archaeological Institute to take over its management. In Ephesus, near the Turkish city of Izmir, she now speaks of "an emotional moment" and wants to look into the future while only considering the scientifically interesting past. One of her goals: to move away from positivist archaeology, which is strongly represented in German-speaking countries and focuses on monuments, and towards the analysis of the ancient economy and the structures within an urban structure. The hinterland of the metropolis is now finally to be examined more closely. (Peter Illetschko / DER STANDARD, print edition, 8/9 May 2010)

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